ING Office Fund (IOF)

After its sibling ING Industrial Fund was acquired by a Goodman Group-led consortium,
ING Office Fund
entered into a trading halt yesterday, pending a potential takeover announcement. It is understood that Investa Property Group is likely to acquire ING Office’s management rights, creating a new office trust controlling over $9 billion in assets. It follows months of negotiations in which a mooted internalisation plan was put forward by management. Investa is said to have offered up revised management fee arrangements to appeal to investors, with a chance of management internalisation later on down the line. The fund has been busy offloading and developing assets, which cut into ING Office’s earnings for the first half of fiscal 2011 by 10 per cent to $71.1 million. Full-year guidance is for operating income of 5.2¢ a unit and a distribution of 3.9¢ a unit.